Shutterstock On YouTube, highlighted comments help you navigate through the many comments on videos.
- A highlighted comment appears on YouTube to flag your attention so that you can interact with the comment more easily.
- Neither users nor creators choose to highlight comments, and it is not good or bad when this happens - the feature is just meant to help you navigate comments that might be of interest to you.
- Here's what you need to know about highlighted comments on YouTube.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
On YouTube, highlighted comments serve many purposes. At a basic level, however, they are there to grab your attention so you can interact with the comment.
And, for clarification, only you can see them - they are not public. Here's a more detailed breakdown of what highlighted comments mean on the platform:
What a highlighted comment means on YouTube
When you see the words "Highlighted Comment" appear above a comment next to someone's username, it can mean several things.
For example, if someone replies to your comment on a video, you may get a notification. When you click through to the page, you'll see that comment with the "Highlighted Comment" tag, thereby making it easier for you to find.
The same goes if it's your video and someone posts a comment - when you click on the notification, the comment will become a highlighted comment at the top of the section so you can more easily reply to it.
When you click on a comment's timestamp, whether it's your video or not, it also highlights that comment, making it appear at the top of the comments section, even above a pinned comment.
Devon Delfino/Business Insider
Highlighted comments can appear on YouTube for a number of reasons - but they're mostly there to help you navigate and interact with comments.
Keep in mind that when you do that, the video will reload and the person who created that comment will get a message back that says, "Highlighted Reply."
Ultimately, highlighted comments are a somewhat automated feature of YouTube that are meant to make your experience on the platform easier in terms of navigation.
They are neither good nor bad, and do not arise because a person chose to make your comment more visible on a particular video.
And whether you're a user or creator, highlighted comments can be helpful when you interact with or make videos, especially when those videos have hundreds or thousands of comments, which would otherwise be nearly impossible to filter through.
Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:
How to create your own YouTube channel for personal use, or a Brand Account for business
How to comment on a YouTube video on your computer or mobile device
How to delete your YouTube history all at once, or remove videos one at a time, on desktop or mobile
How to temporarily hide or permanently delete your YouTube account, and erase any trace of yourself from the site